Melbourne suburban garden notes

From time to time I will include some notes here about the wildlife and plants in our small, but bushy, suburban garden. Occasionally I will also mention some wildlife observations in other parts of suburban Melbourne.

25 March 2018

AutumnAnother 6 months has flown by. This time I wasn't hibernating; I've just been busy.

Rain at lastOn the 30th of January we recorded 43.5mm in our rain gauge. From then until 25 March, there was never as much as 1mm, and that was infrequent. Beautiful rain on 24th March meant there was 14.7mm in the gauge this morning. It's raining again as I type tonight. Parks and gardens in our area have been dust dry, with many plants withering. Some will not recover, but this rain will definitely help others.

BirdsVarious autumn visitors have arrived in our garden or in local parks. These include Eastern Spinebill (the first to appear, and enjoying our Correas), Grey Fantail (arrived within the last week; lovely to see flitting about in the garden), large flocks of Little Corellas (here for a week or so to date), King Parrot, and Gang-Gang Cockatoo. One day recently there were two Fairy Martins flying low over a local oval with uncountable numbers of Welcome Swallows. I don't remember seeing martins in our area before. Quite a surprise.

Nectarine treeWe covered the nectarine tree with netting, but once the fruit reached a certain size and ripeness, something started eating them. We found them at it one night. Possums. One was scrambling over the outside of the netting, eating fruit that were close enough to the edge. The other one was inside the netting! It had ripped a hole in the top of it. After trying unsuccessfully to fix the netting and make it impenetrable, we picked all the remaining fruit that hadn't been attacked and put them in the fridge. At least we have had more than last year. Will have to think of a better strategy for next year.

25 September 2017

SpringIt's been a while. I think I've just come out of hibernation. It's Spring.

BirdsDuring the past week, there have been the usual Brown Thornbills, Spotted Doves, Common Blackbirds, Red Wattlebirds, and Little Wattlebirds in our bushy suburban garden, but also the visiting Grey Fantails, and occasional Spotted Pardalote and Silvereye. Pied Currawongs and Little Ravens are about. I've seen the Tawny Frogmouth that lives at the other end of the street and one night I heard a Laughing Kookaburra laugh at 4:40 am. Just one jolly laugh and it was quiet again. I don't think I've heard an Eastern Spinebill in the past week. Might have returned to the hills to breed. I hear Magpie Larks and Australian Magpies at first light. There's a lot of Magpie families near here. I wonder when they'll start swooping. When they have young in the nest, of course. Males swoop, but not all of them, and they don't swoop at everyone who passes by.

Suburban habitat destructionMore old houses and their surrounding bushy gardens are being razed to the ground in this neighbourhood. Replacement houses are huge or in multiples. I grieve for the lost animal habitat of those gone gardens.

Compost heapsRats were letting themselves into our wooden-plank-sided compost heap, even though it was covered. I think I've found a solution. My latest compost heaps are in concrete plant pots supported on bricks with the central hole partly obstructed, but not enough to stop water flowing out. The top of each is covered with sturdy wire mesh and shade cloth kept down with a couple of bricks. Little flies get in and out, but not big ones. Also, no rats! Sadly the worms that used to inhabit the old compost heap in the thousands, don't seem to be able to get into the new heaps, so I put some in by hand.

Possums and PassionfruitI thought it was rats that were eating our passionfruit last autumn, but it was Ring-tailed Possums. We caught them at it. They seem much cuter than rats. I wonder why. I don't much mind sharing with possums. However, I found information advising people to distract possums from their fruit crops by providing the little animals with apples placed well away from the garden fruit. I wasn't going to buy apples for them, but tried them on the cores and peel from the apples we eat ourselves. I put them in a container on a fence. It worked, insofar as they ate the apples. By that time, there were very few passionfruit left on the vine and I had enclosed them in plastic bottles in such a way that the possums couldn't reach the fruit. Now that it's Spring I am weaning the possums off the apples. What if I have inadvertently increased the local possum population by providing them with more food to get them through winter. Next passionfruit season I will try harder to keep the passionfruit protected.

NectarineThe nectarine tree outside the kitchen window is flowering beautifully and leaves are appearing now as well. I have to work out how to stop creatures from eating the fruits. Last season's culprits appeared to be rats from the evidence we found. Our trunk guard and/or netting didn't stop them. I think we ended up having about 4 pieces of fruit and the rats got the other hundred and more.

14 March 2017

SpidersThere are now consistently two Garden Orb-weavers in the back garden. One has been there for at least a couple of months now. It puts its web up every evening and takes it in again before dawn. I haven't watched it reel it in yet, but it's always gone by the time I check up. A few nights ago it disappeared. It didn't spin its web and wasn't in its daytime 'roost'. The next night it reappeared and has been in its usual place in the day, but it has a smaller-looking abdomen that suggests it might have been laying eggs when it was out of sight. I wonder.There's a couple of small spiders in the front garden. They have tiny orb webs each with a linear zigzag stabilimentum or decoration on them. I think they might be Argiope species, but am not sure. They catch tiny insects in their webs from time to time.

BirdsThe bird bath in the front garden has been well used lately. There were five Brown Thornbills bathing in it yesterday and a few days ago somewhere between 12 and 20 small birds were using it. Most were Silvereyes. At least one was an Eastern Spinebill. They were moving about so fast, in and out of the bath, that it was hard to count them.Six Gang-Gangs have regularly been at a local park since the middle of February and I heard one calling as it flew over our place last weekend. I also heard a Spotted Pardalote near here recently.

Rats and fruitOur beautiful nectarine tree was covered with healthy looking fruit, and although we had it covered with netting, suddenly all but 4 fruit had been eaten. I think rats are the culprits.One of the passion-fruit vines is covered with green passion-fruit and I thought the skins were thick enough to stop rats from eating them, but today I found an open fruit on the ground with lots of bite marks in it. Very sad. I also found a few green fruits that something had attempted to eat, but had only broken the surface and not penetrated as far as the seeds. Will they ripen? Is the rat going to destroy that harvest too? Woe. Where are all the neighbourhood cats when you need them?

PandoreaThe Pandorea on the north fence seems to be in flower all the time. Now the one on the south fence that survived the new fence building is growing at a great rate. It has spread many metres along the fence and is flowering beautifully. I preciously mentioned the Pandoreas on 14 Feb 2016.

FernsThe ferns are looking good, even most of the tree ferns. Summer was not too harsh for them, despite the generally low rainfall. One tree fern had lost all its fronds and grew a small one after the one good fall of summer rain, but it has lost it again. It's trunk is covered with other fern plants, as are the trunks of all the other tree ferns. The ground ferns are fine; lush and growing well.

March Weather....has been beautiful. This is fast becoming my favourite month, except that summer is now officially over. The days have been warm and sunny and the nights pleasant. The garden needs rain, but at least the weather is gorgeous.

House and garden destructionMore houses are being demolished in our area. At the same time their gardens are totally destroyed. Not a twig or a leaf is left. A large house is built where a smaller one stood and the former trees are not replaced. This means death to untold numbers of tiny creatures as well as some larger ones, or at least the loss of their homes. It looks like small scale clear-fell logging, only the scale is effectively rather large because it happens so often. The loss of garden creatures is apparently far from the minds of the owners or the builders of these new monstrous houses. It's such a shame. Suburban gardens can provide such good habitat and the plants themselves are so beneficial to the suburban environment in countless ways.

25 Jan 2017

InsectsMany different insects have been in the garden lately. Honey bees are occupying a possum box again. A hive was there for a couple of years, then the bees left, but now some have found it again. Today I photographed a robber fly and a damsel fly both sitting still under the tree ferns. Butterflies have been here regularly, but are generally less accommodating.

SpidersOf late there have been beautiful large Garden Orb-weaving Spiders. Three or four construct their large webs at night in the back and side garden, some attached to the house. Usually they have reeled them in by daylight. Wonderful to watch how fast they move while building.

BirdsThe Brown Thornbills sing and forage all day. Sometimes I see them bathing at one of the bird baths. They dart into the water for no more than an instant. I heard an Eastern Spinebill today, though that wasn't the first time this summer. Kookaburras bred in a nearby park in spring. I still see them (usually two) occasionally in people's gardens when I go for a walk.

SummerSummer is officially more than half over. Today is cool, but we have had an odd day in the high 30s (°C).

FruitOne passion-fruit vine (the huge one that is climbing all over one of the wattle trees) is laden with fruit, but the other has none. The flowers bloom, but no fruit develops. There are fewer nectarines on the tree this year. The tree lost most of its leaves early in the season, but now has healthy-looking new ones. The lemon tree has grown more leaves, but there are no fruit.

WattleThe Blackwood wattle is taking up a large part of the back garden and several young ones are growing, either from seed (in pots) or are coming up from the roots of the parent plant.

11 October 2016

RainA huge amount of rain has fallen in recent weeks and the garden looks very healthy for it, particularly the ferns on the north side of the house and some Hop Goodenia Goodenia Ovata plants in the front garden. Watering with a hose could never have an effect like that. A Melaleuca hypericifolia to the north of the house was covered with European Wasps earlier in the year. Now it is inside a cloud of Hover Flies.

BirdA Grey Fantail visited for about a week a few weeks ago and again on 5, 6 and 7 of October. Always very welcome here.

DaysDaylight saving started at the beginning of October and the evenings are lovely and long now. The weather has been mostly cold, though.

Winter hibernation

5 April 2016

MicrobatsNow that daylight saving has ended, the dark of evening descends early and fast. Today a late afternoon walk suddenly became an evening one that revealed three microbats flitting about in an open space between tall trees in a local park. What a joy to see. It was an unusually warm day for April. Insects must have been plentiful.

Late March 2016

A grey Fantail made itself at home in our garden for several days; passing through on its autumnal altitudinal migration I expect.

16 March 2016

Ceres Community Environment ParkToday I visited Ceres http://ceres.org.au/ in Brunswick for an exploratory walk and to see the nursery and make some purchases. It's years since I was last there and the park has really developed. As a place of peace, growth, community, and sound environmental practice, it is a mosaic of small food-plant gardens packed into a larger park with chooks, markets, bikes, cafes, classes and a beautiful nursery. I must visit there more often. It's accessible by bike path, too.

8 March 2016

Local birdsVery hot day today, close to 40°C. Unusual for March. At around sunset, when I walked to the below-mentioned (3 March) park and further, I saw an Australian King Parrot, Musk Lorikeets, Galahs and a very hot-looking Laughing Kookaburra that was holding its wings out in an apparent attempt to keep cool. The more usual birds were there as well. These included Noisy Miners, Crested Pigeons, Welcome Swallows, and Eastern Rosellas. Presumably the King Parrot and Kookaburra are here for the same reasons as the Galahs and Gang Gangs mentioned on the 3rd of March. Everywhere is hot a dry and Melbourne's suburbia might offer some food, water, or protection.

The annual Little Corella visit has started. They usually appear in large numbers at this time to harvest the fruits of introduced tree species such as Liquidambar and Oak.

3 March 2016

CockatoosI just saw 24 Galahs and 11 Gang-Gang Cockatoos in a Melbourne suburban park, not much more than 11 km from Melbourne's Fed Square as the Cockatoo flies, if it feels inclined to travel to the city in a straight line. The species are regular late-autumn or winter visitors, but I have not seen such large numbers of either species in that park before. They are very early.

14 February 2016

FoxAt 20 past 9 this morning a fox climbed over the back fence and ran diagonally across the garden. It vanished around the corner of the house, where its only option was to head for the front garden. I followed. By the time I reached the front, it had gone. I went to the gate to look for it in the street. Nothing. Then it appeared from behind a parked car on the other side of the road. It headed south. It must have crossed the road, gone north (or vice versa), then doubled back. Running fast, it leapt over the front fence of the house opposite and disappeared down their driveway. The animal was thin and looked young and was presumably inexperienced. Our suburb is known to harbour lots of urban foxes, but up until now we have only had fleeting views of them at night.

Fig plants and PandoreaSome of the new fig plants on the side of the house have grown well. The healthiest is about a metre tall. They grow very fast. However, some of them have been eaten by little green caterpillars or similar. The creatures eat fast, or happen to eat through a stem. Yesterday and today I attached some wire mesh to the fence so I can attempt to control the growth of the fig plants. I attached similar wire to the fence soon after it was built so that the Pandorea jasminoides, which survived the fence building, would have something to grow up. They are growing apace and have dark green healthy looking leaves. Their stems wind around the wire, always reaching up to the light. Every few days I unwind and rewind the ones that are heading in a direction I would prefer they did not take. The area where they are growing is shaded and the plants are not flowering. In contrast, the Pandorea plants on the north side of the house enjoy lots of sun and are flowering profusely. However, their leaves are pale and drooping, except in the lowest areas where there is some shade.

FernsSeveral tall tree ferns are growing on the north side of our house with some protection provided by the fence between us and our neighbours. The tree ferns do quite well in winter and manage summer heat except when the temperature exceeds 40° C in the shade. That happened on 13 January. Being outside in the sun on that day was an extraordinary experience. All the tree ferns were badly burnt. Very sad. However, all but one have started to recover. New fronds have unfurled or are in the process. The various other fern species in the garden are at least partially shaded. They were burnt too, but not completely.

LemonsOn 7 October 2015, I mentioned our lemon tree. It had grown new leaves and had flower buds. Great joy. The leaves still look good, but the buds all disappeared. Perhaps it wasn't ready to fruit yet. Right now it is hard to find Australian lemons for sale in supermarkets and fruit shops.Those for sale have been imported from the USA and are about $1 each. Not cheap.

NectarinesThe self-sewn nectarine plant outside the kitchen window is laden with ripening fruit. There look to be fewer than last year, but they are bigger. They are as delicious as ever. The tree is covered with a net so that we can have the fruit instead of birds, rats, mice, possums or anything else that the net stops; even foxes, I guess.

Rain gaugeThe rain gauge used to be attached high on the back fence, but the nearby trees recently grew to the point where the canopy overshadowed the gauge. This does not lead to accurate rainfall measurement. I moved the gauge to the side veranda where there was nothing overhead to interfere with the rainfall. I placed the gauge in a pot-plant pot together with a tile on one side and a rock on the other to keep it vertical. This was rather inelegant. My creative husband has since constructed a neat wooden stand for it. Now it is a useful work of art.

Bird bathsRecently I installed another bird bath in the back garden. Each of our three bird baths consists of a cylinder of wire mesh balanced on one end, with a large upturned pot-plant saucer on top and the bath balanced on top of that. The structure is kept in place with bricks inserted through the mesh at the end that is on the ground. The space between the wires of the mesh is not much bigger than the cross-section of a brick. The idea is that the flimsiness of the stand will deter cats from trying to climb it or leap onto it. It seems to work.

27 October 2015

BirdsThe various Australian Magpie families in our area have been nesting successfully. Yesterday I could hear the plaintive cries of a young magpie in the back garden. When I looked out, all I could see was a Pied Currawong in the closest wattle tree and an adult male magpie below it. They were wary of each other. The currawong was pulling large galls off the tree. I wonder if it thought they were small fruits of some sort or can it get at the insect inside the gall? No, probably not. I just cut one open, and although the gall was big (~1.5cm in diameter), the shiny black insect inside was quite tiny (3mmx1.5mm). The galls are located along what used to be the flower spikes. Remnants of the flowers can be seen on the outside of the newest galls.Back to the young magpie... I moved to another window in order to see it. By then the birds were all on the ground or close to it. The young bird was asking both the male magpie and the currawong for food, but neither seemed to find anything for it. The male magpie prodded at the ground a bit, but it was hard and dry and yielded nothing.

Fig plantsIt's not long since we had a new fence constructed along the southern boundary of our little property. We saved most plants from destruction during the process, but some needed to be cut back or removed to make room. One was a 'self-sewn' fig 'tree'. Now some fresh fig leaves have appeared on the ground above the leaf litter. On closer inspection, they are growing from some short cut bits of fig branch that have a little soil around them and have also sprouted roots. These plants love life. I moved them to a better location, closer to the new fence rather than in the middle of the pathway. We never got to eat any of the fruits of the 'parent' plant because the possums (I suppose) ate them first (unless it was high-climbing foxes; see above under 14 Feb 2016). It will be interesting to see how these new plants fare.

19 October 2015

BirdsOver the past few days or so, the birds in our garden have included Grey Fantail, Brown Thornbill, Silvereye, and Spotted Pardalote, with an Eastern Spinebill over the road. So many small bush birds in deep suburbia! Does this mean there are so many in the bush that the overflow come to the city and find it suits them, or is there too little habitat in the bush and they have to come here? Perhaps a bit of both. None of those species are rare in surrounding bush areas. Some birds manage well in all sorts of different environments, but those species at least need some vegetation at different levels.

The baby blackbird that I mentioned in earlier posts did not survive. It seemed to die of natural causes, that is, after its parents stopped caring for it. I found its body on the ground in a patch of violet plants. Perhaps the parents knew there was something wrong and stopped feeding it, or were they inexperienced and didn't know how to continue its care once it was away from the nest? I was very surprised that it was not eaten by one of the predators that might have liked it. A young fledgling on the ground on its own would have few defences. None really.

BlackwoodThe large Blackwood wattle Acacia melanoxylon is doing well at the back of our garden. It is taller than any of the other trees now. It also has produced many young plants. Some have come up from its roots, but others from seed. I know some are from seed because they have appeared in various pots that have other plants in them, or just soil or weedy grass. It is interesting to watch how the young bipinnate leaves of new plants develop as the plant grows. The leaf stem broadens and becomes a phyllode and the leaves are lost. The pattern of change varies among the leaf-phyllode combinations, though. Eventually as the plants age, they mostly produce only phyllodes and there is no sign of leaves any more.Unfortunately, we won't be able to keep all the young trees. There isn't enough room for them all to grow as well as all the other plants in the garden.

7 October 2015

TemperatureIt's cool today. There is a sense of relief in the garden. Yesterday I said there were more than 100 fires burning in Victoria. Today I heard that there had been more like 200. So early in the season!

BirdsThe baby blackbird survived the night and the parents continued to feed it. They find so much food. They started to cluck loudly in the late afternoon. I went to investigate and found a Pied Currawong sitting on top of the shed, eyeing off the location of the young one. I haven't seen the young blackbird, or the currawong, since then. Visiting Cat appeared later, but showed no interest in the Blackbird's earlier location.

TreesI am not the only one concerned about the destruction of trees in this area. The leading article on the front of this week's local paper, Progress Leader Tues October 6, laments the loss of the neighbourhood's character due to canopy-tree removal when old houses are pulled down and new ones built in their place. In my earlier comments I was primarily concerned about the loss of habitat for wildlife, but realise that the whole character of the area is under threat. Also, trees are an incredibly important element in the health of the environment. The newspaper article describes how new houses are being built right to the back of the block and in many cases there is no front garden. It is argued that the current fine of $2000 for illegal removal of canopy trees is not enough. The local council is trying to educate builders and owners about local laws concerning trees, but they also need to acquire knowledge about the value of gardens, including large trees.

Lemon treeOn another topic, though still on trees, a year and a half ago I planted a lemon tree in a sunny spot, protected from the west by various other trees. It failed to thrive until now. For the first time, it has grown new leaves, lots of them. It is looking wonderful. It also has flower buds.

6 October 2015

FiresThis was a total fire-ban day with more than 100 fires burning in Victoria. Here it was hot and windy until about 4pm.

BirdsBirds seen in or from the garden today included Grey Fantail, Silvereye, Brown Thornbill, Common Blackbird, Spotted Dove, Little Raven, Red Wattlebird, and amazingly, a Wedge-tailed Eagle. The Wedge-tail flew lazily overhead late in the afternoon with a following of agitated Little Ravens and a very brave silhouette that was possibly a Red Wattlebird. Luckily we were outside at the time, or we would have missed it.

The Blackbirds have bred in a nest on the side of a tree fern. One fledgling spent the day on the ground under the nest. It looks a bit young to be out. The parents have been gathering all sorts of invertebrates for the young one. A visiting cat turned up and found the fledgling's place under the nest, but the parents managed to scare it off. I guess it will be back. It regularly uses our garden as a thoroughfare. Unimaginatively, we call it Visiting Cat.

Grey Fantails used to be extremely rare here, but are appearing more often now. They seem to like the Blackwood, which is quite large now. The adjacent Pittosporum is also favoured, as well as another wattle, but I don't know what species that is.

Trees and suburban wildlifeIt saddens me when I see so many houses around here being pulled down to be replaced by new, larger houses and at the same time the existing gardens are obliterated. When a new, larger house is completed, there is no space for the shrubs and trees that urban wildlife needs. In future, if this continues, the suburbs will no longer provide adequate and safe habitat for animals.

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